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PAUL ^GAINST INGERSOLL 



The Question beautifully answered from the 0r= 

thodox Standpoint. The eminent Infidel met 

on his own Grounds. His devil=me=care 

thrusts repelled by unanswerable 

arguments , sound logic ; and a 

rich vein of sarcastic humor. 










S 



A Lecture delivered by PROF. H, TJ. JOHNSON, at 

the First M. E. Church, Jamestown, N. Y», 

January 2Sd, 1881. 

• ?AY - 

t4 



1881. 
CHAUTAUQUA DEMOCRAT PRINT 

Jamestown, 1ST. Y. 






7^ 



^ 




Copyright, 

H. U. JOHNSON, 

1881. 



WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED ? 



THE QUESTION ANSWERED. 



" Tis midnight's holy hour and silence like, 

A pall is resting 7 ver a still and pulseless world," 

Wrote the poet of the " Closing Year." The words are no more ap- 
plicable to that meditative period than to a midnight that hung over the 
city of Philippi as she lay nestling amid her groves and resting upon her 
hillsides after a day of turmoil and excitement. 

And wherefore the commotion of the day and the unwonted repose of 
the night ? A short time before whilst at Troas, Paul had experienced 
that wonderful vision in which it had been said to him, " Come over into 
Macedonia and help us." With a soul all aglow in the interests of the 
Master's kingdom and his heart welling up in Missionary enthusiasm, he 
hasted obedience to the heavenly vision. 

With Silas, his companion in travel, he soon found himself in Philippi 
earnestly at work in the dissemination of the gospel committed to 
his hands. Down by the "riverside where prayer was wont to be made," 
he preached Jesus with such simplicity and power, that soon Lydia of 
Thyatira and her household were among those who had received the truth, 
and henceforth her house was the home of Paul and his companion. 

Busied with their work they went joyfully to and fro in the city dis- 
tressed but by one circumstance. Day after day there followed them a 
damsel bowed under a double bondage, being ' ' possessed with a spirit of 
divination " and held as the property of sordid men. Following closely 
upon the devoted disciples she cried continually, ; ' These men are the 



WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED? 



servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of Salvation." 
When Paul could endure this no longer, in the name of Jesus Christ he 
commanded the spirit to come out of her, and in the same hour the thing 
was done. 

Their hopes of gain gone, the owners of the maiden "Caught Paul 
and Silas and drew them into the market-place uuto the rulers, and 
brought them to the magistrates, saying, ' These men, being Jews, do ex- 
ceedingly trouble our city, and teach customs which are not lawful for 
us to receive, being Eomans.'" You know the result. The magistrates, 
willing to gratify the rabble gathered around, without the semblence of a 
trial commanded them to be beaten. Now to be beaten before a Roman 
Court was no trivial affair. The accused men, with none to plead their 
cause or utter words of sympathy, were seized, stripped, bound, and 
thrown with their faces to the earth. Then came the lictors and plied the 
lash until the knotted thongs sank deep into their quivering flesh ; until 
the gushing blood ran down to the cold pave beneath. When the caprice 
of the magistrates and the savage thirst of the multitude for blood were 
satisfied, may be not until the arms of the fierce minions of the law were 
wearied, the judges gave direction, without instituting a single inquiry, 
that the piteable objects before them should be cast into prison and there 
securely kept. 

The jailor, though he may have been a kind-hearted man, having re- 
ceived such a command and knowing that his life would pay the fore-f eit, 
should they escape, ''Thrust Paul and Silas into the inner prison and made 
their feet fast in the stocks." 

Those of us who have seen a modern prison, tho' christian influences 
have brought about it many comforts and ameliorations, know well that 
it is anything but an attractive place, yet an American penitentiary as 
compared with a Roman prison of two thousand years ago would prove a 
kingly place. That Philippian prison stood with its massive stone walls 
all windowless and drear, and within its cells were tireless, damp and chill, 
and beneath its cold stone floor, secured by a heavy trap, down in the very 
bowels of the earth where no ray of sunlight ever came, was the inner 
prison, kept for the foulest and basest of felons. Into this dismal place, 
hungry, lacerated and bleeding as they were, were Paul and Silas thrust, 
and that there might be no possibility of escape their ankles were con- 
fined between the heavy timbers. This done, the ponderous marble slab 
closed, leaving them for the night in darkness and alone. 



THE QUESTION ANSWERED. 



"Alone, did I say? No, not alone. The spirit was there, and 
wretched as the men were, there was no despondency. Bruised, bleeding 
and shivering, methinks they failed not to talk the hours away in cheer- 
ful converse, recounting the experiences and blessings of the past and ex 
pressing bright hopes for the Master's kingdom in the future. As the 
hours passed by their hearts warmed until their glowing tho'ts broke forth 
in earnest prayer— prayer for blessings upon their enemies, for deliverance 
to themselves, for the spread of gospel truth. At the hour of midnight 
the voice of invocation changed to the melody of song, and in the strange 
weird measure of Hebrew psalmody their souls we at up. There was no 
reporter there to chronicle the words they sang, but these would have 
have been fitting ones ; ' ' Praise the Lord for his goodness ; he f eedeth the 
hungry, he lif teth up the bowed down, he restoreth the prisoner ; 
he hath broken the gates of brass, he h; th sawn the bars of iron in sun- 
der. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his 
wonderful works to the children of men. " May be it was that grand old 
effusion in which the man is blessed ' ' who walketh not in the counsel 
of the ungodly nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." 

It matters not. In that dismal prison the strange intonations caught 
the ears of the wondering prisoners above, and pressing on, claimed the 
attention of heaven itself, which answered back in earthquake throes that 
caused the deep foundations of the prison to heave, its massive walls to 
shake until every bolt was drawn and each prisoner beheld the doors ajar. 
Roused from his slumbers and supposing that his wards were fled, the 
jailor was about to put an end to his own life to save his head from inex- 
orable Roman law, when the clear, assuring voice of Paul, rising from 
his loathsome dungeon saying "Do thyself no harm ; for we all are here," 
calmed his fears. In my imagination I see Paul and Silas lifted up from 
that " inner prison," and the jailor prostrate before them crying, with an 
energy characteristic of the occasion, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved ?" 
Saved from what ? I ask. From the earthqnake's terrors ? The earth- 
quake had passed by. Saved from the unrelenting hand of the Roman 
law that would have required his life had a prisoner escaped ? The pris- 
oners were all there ; none had manifested a disposition to escape. Some 
higher sentiment then, had taken possession of his soul. These men had 
come to him but a few hours before in a most pitiable plight, forced to 
prison as he well knew on a mere question of belief. Of their doctrines 
he knew little. Himself from very boyhood, accustomed to go into 



WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED ? 



the sacred groves and see the offerings to the gods placed in the hands of 
the priests, and witness the ceremonies attendant upon mythological 
worship, believed that when the duties of life were ended he should go to 
Elysian fields, a companion of gods and goddesses, to enjoy an unend- 
ing round of voluptuous pleasure. But there was nothing in his religion 
that taught the spirit he saw manifested in the wretched — happy men be- 
fore him, and he longed to drink from the fountain whence they had 
drunk. Hence his question. Seeing their opportunity, Paul said "Be- 
lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 

Saved how ? With a cold historic belief ? No, with an earnest, child- 
like, confinding faith. The sermon was a short one, but long enough for 
seeking hearts. The faith it inspired immediately showed itself in works, 
for he who a few hours before was willing to show his fealty to cruel 
law, now rose above all fear of consequences, washed and soothed the 
bleeding stripes, ministered to the wants of the men whom he had but 
recently treated so roughly, and rising above the superstitions of a hfe- 
time he and all his were baptised in that same hour. He was saved. 
Saved to a newness of lif e here, to higher aspirations and ends ; saved to 
a blissful immortality through faith in a Savior that was crucified and had 
n< w risen. 

We stand at a distance of more than 1800 years from the eventful pe- 
riod of the imprisonment of Paul and Silas. The great Apostle to the 
Gentiles having finished his earthly mission, was offered up from a dun- 
geon more loathsome far than the one at Philippi, a dungeon deep hidden 
from human gaze and over whose rocky arches the chariot wheels of 
many an imperial Roman rolled. No vestage of history or tradition re- 
mains to tell us where Silas, Lydia or the jailor were buried. The re- 
mains of magistrates and lictors alike, sleep in unknown and unhonored 
graves, and nothing remains of Philippi herself but a few crumbled 
gateways, amphitheaters and columes scattered amid unsightly ruins, but 
the question raised by the jailor on that memorable night still lives on and 
is pressing for an answer in every unregenerate human heart. 

The dusky denizen of our western wiles, as he follows the elk and the 
bison, is striving to answer it by praying the Great Spirit that when his 
earthly chase is ended he may go to the spirit hunting grounds, there to 
pursue the panting game, forever undisturbed by the presence of the 
pale face. The unlettered thousands of ihe islands of the sea and the sa- 
ble millions of Africa's unexplored fastnesses are offering up their human 



THE QUESTION ANSWERED. 



sacrifices amid the most frenzied orgies, expecting that thereby they may 
secure the right to feed upon the flesh and blood of their enemies in the 
sunny climes to which they think they may attain. The Mussulman rig- 
idly performs his devotions that when his warfare of faith in the cause of 
the prophet is ended, Allah may give him a Paradisaical harem where he 
may pass a voluptuous eternity with wives "beautiful as the houri and 
wise as Zobeide." 

But to us whose eyes are opened and alive to all the beauties and bless- 
ings of the highest Christian civilization and whose hands should ten- 
derly open to the reception of its most exalted virtues, the question comes 
as to none other. 

It presents itself to the school boy as he rests from the conning of his 
lessons or lays down his bat and ball upon the playground and catches a 
glimpse of the realities awaiting him when his school days and youthful 
games are ended. So with the maiden, as her fingers rest from the delicate 
pattern upon which she has been engaged, and ' ' Fancy, unto fancy weav- 
ing," builds beautiful air castles that shall be hers when she leaves the 
home and mother of childhood, and passing beyond these, sees age, de- 
crepitude and sorrow. Something says to her she may be lifted above all 
these and have rest, enduring rest. The man of business, as he turns his 
ledger, follows the plough, swings the sledge, or pleads at the bar, even, is 
not free from its seeming tantalizing presence. 

In some form or another it presents itself to us all. We may not un- 
derstand how it is that the taint of the first pair attaches to us, and we 
may question the justice and mercy of God in holding us measurably re- 
sponsible for the acts of those who lived six thousand years ago, and we 
may charge him as the author ofthe evil tendencies and passions we find 
wrankling within us, nevertheless the certainty of death stares us in 
the face, and we acknowledge by our words and ways, that after death 
comes the judgement, and from its severities there is an instinctive 
shrinking back, and a constant recurrence of the momentous question : 
" What must I do to be saved ?" 

Amid all our philosophisings and conjecturings, we seek in vain for a 
satisfactory answer until we turn to the scriptures. The plain and unde- 
niable teachings of these are that man was created a pure and holy being. 
His body, formed of preexistent matter, was the highest and most perfect 
of the handiworks of God, and into this the Master Builder breathed the 
breath of lives and man stood forth a living soul, in the image of his crea- 



8 WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED? 

tor and in this condition the earth was given to him for his inheri- 
tance. 

Brief was this happy state, sin came " with all its maddening train," 
and there was council in heaven where it ' 'Kepented God that he had made 
man," and he would destroy him from the face of the earth. Then it was 
that the Son stood forth in the exercise of that love that has ever been 
the wonder of the world, pleading that he might bear our griefs and carry 
our sorrows ; that he might be wounded for our transgressions and bruised 
for our iniquities ; that the chastisement by which our peace is obtained 
might be laid upon him, and that with his stripes an offending race might 
be healed. 

Touched with this sense of feeling for our "infirmities" on the part 
of the Son, for once in all the history of the Universe the Father said, 
" Not my will, but thine be done." It was done. In due time Christ 
came and preached his wonderful gospel of sacrifice for the race, and then 
poured out his blood that all who believe in his name might be saved, — a 
doctrine so simple that to the Jew it has ever proved a "stumbling block, 
to the Greek, foolishness, but to them who believe, the power of God unto 
salvation. " In this Christ, as the " Lamb slain from the foundation of 
the world, the jailor believed and was saved, and whosoever will may go 
and do likewise, and salvation shall be his, and there shall follow the 
" peaceful fruits of rightiousness," good works, brotherly love, and that 
" charity which covereth a multitude of sins." 

In Christ, then, let me farther add, we have the substitution for the 
penalty which divine justice required for offended law. As maternal tears 
or parental anguish will sometimes subdue the obdurate will of childhood 
or the more settled perverseness of later years, bringing it into subjection 
to proper authority, so the Atonement of Christ satisfies the divine law in 
the case of all those who thro' repentence do sincerely avail themselves of 
its provisions. 



THE NEW APOSTOLIC CREED. 



COL. INGEKSOLL'S DOCTRINE EXAMINED. 



Having thus briefly stated the estrangement of man from his Creator 
and the means provided for his restoration to the divine favor, I proceed 
to the discussion of a new doctrine of salvation, or rather an old and oft 
exploded one, as presented by its latest apostle, Col. Kobert G. Ingersoll, 
than whom there is not a more silver-tongued orator, pleasing rhetorcian, 
rickety logician, or blatant scoffer in all the land. Standing upon the plat- 
form of many an Academy of Music or hall of the great cities and larger 
towns of the country, he lifts up his voice declaring that nearly everybody 
is afraid of dying and going to the devil direct, and then asks the question, 
"What must we do to be saved !" and proceeds to its discussion as tho' 
ho would save from impending ruin. 

That I may the more briefly examine his doctrine, I gather the prin- 
cipal points into concise statements which I am pleased to call 
THE NEW APOSTOLIC CREED. 

The first article in our Apostle's creed may be stated thus : 

"Liberty is my religion. Humanity will take care of me. I am 
going to breathe the common air and enjoy a glorious freedom.*' 

Liberty is a good thing, but to be profitable it must be subject to law. 
The planetary bodies are at liberty to move, but that liberty is subject to 
the laws of motion, else chaos and destruction would surely follow. 

Liberty is certainly desirable in onr civil and social relations, and yet 
we all demand the strong arm of the law to be extended over us lest we 
be despoiled of our goods and robbed of our fair name. 

Our Apostle demands for himself the right of free tho't, atid 
yet he knows that the workings of his own mind are subject to the most 
inexorable laws which, if disregarded, would render the best of mental 
efforts puerile. 

Liberty unregulated by law rapidly degenerates into license. None 
knows this better than Apostle Kobert himself. His discipline, founded 
in early training, may guard him from those excesses which dazzle his 
youthful followers, and lead them into abuses which his better sense would 
revolt. 



10 WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED ? 



But the crowning thought of his first article is that humanity will take 
care of him. Who believes that humanity will take care of anyone, unless 
that humanity is directed and controled by law and christian principles ? 
Only on the humanity of our own strong arms and willing hands do we 
rely for unfailing friends, and when these fail us we, are deserted indeed. 
Sir Walter Scott was a grand specimen of a man, and the world shouted 
his praises, but when misfortune overtook him there were none among 
his human admirers upon whom he could rely, only upon Sir Walter 
Scott. Humanity might have done a grand thing for the learned Dr. Dick, 
but it allowed him to die in comparative poverty and destitution. Thomas 
Paine was an enthusiastic admirer of humanity, yet his last days would 
have been most wretched indeed, had it not been for the care of a kind 
christian lady who, rising above the promptings of mere human sympathy, 
bestowed upon his last days those kindly offices denied him by those who 
had shouted his praises in the day when he was astride the popular wave 
of " Common Sense " and some of his other essays. 

Humanity in heathen lands robs women of sympathy and soul, and 
casts out the infirm old, and the helpless young, unwept to die, and yet 
we are called upon to ignore the higher law u that hallowed the sabbath, " 
and proclaims subjection to authority, and trust implicitly to this same 
unregenerate humanity. 

Whilst receiving princely remuneration for his lectures, our Apostle 
may dazzle the unthinking by proclaiming his faith in humanity, but 
changes as remarkable as that the gifted Col. Ingersoll, encased in a plain 
pine box, shall one day be carried to the Potter's Field with the undertaker 
singing above him, 

" Eattle his bones over the stones, 

He's only a pauper whom nobody owns," 

have occured in many a personal history. What has been may be again. 
It is not good to put our trust in princes. 

The second article in the new creed is, "There is no worship but 
justice." 

Well, justice is a good thing. No honest man can deny that. I open 
the Book to a period carrying me back some 2500 years and I find it 
written, "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth the 
Lord require of thee, but to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly be- 
fore thy God." " Good, I like that," but regret that our Apostle's eyes 
failed him on the last clause. Had he adopted that, what a power he 



THE NEW APOSTOLIC CKEED. 11 

might have been, and we should have said, " There is a giant in our day." 
I go nearly 1000 years further up the stream of time and I find that God 
said amid the tbunderings of Sinai, "Thou shalt have no unjust balance." 
Maybe however that was merely a " Mistake of Moses." Strange isn't it, 
that the eloquent modern Apostle should be continually stealing orthodox 
thunder, and that his enthusiastic disciples from dry goods boxes, hotel 
porches and numberless "dives" should be echoing it as grand doctrine 
without knowing whence it came? Let me ask, why not give love, mercy 
and truth some place in this article? And echo answers, "Why ?" 

I pass to the third article which sums up as follows : — 

' ' Reason is the pilot of the soul. If I go to heaven I wish to take 
my reason with me. I don't believe it is dangerous to be intelligent, and 
I'm going to study everything by my reason." 

Well, reason is a good thing, and I venture that most of us wish we 
had a fuller supply of it. But is it a fact, Robert, that there is a soul ? It 
is, for the creed says so. Then why, guided by reason alone, have so 
many men made shipwreck of life and all its interests ? Why did Lord 
Bacon, who possessed this gift in a pre-eminent degree, pursue so sordid 
a course that his public career, like that of a modern Congressman, had to 
be examined by a committee ; that he had to confess to the reception of 
large sums of money under very questionable circumstances ; that he had 
to give up the ermine, and that what should have been a glorious sunset 
was an evening of deepest gloom ? Why did the gifted Burr, raised to the 
second place within the gift of the people and almost to the White House 
" itself piloted by" reason blast the reputation that might have been his 
ever after in the republic ? Why are others doing it now ? And echo 
answers, " Why?" 

When our Apostle goes to heaven, and there is one, for it is so de- 
clared in the creed, he wishes to " take his reason with him." "Good." 
He will be gratified. That was a sharp pass between Abraham and Dives, 
when the latter had become so intensely interested in the welfare of his 
brethren, and shows that the old patriarch was as logical as when he re- 
fused the spoils at the conquest of the kings. "Rest in hope," Colonel. 

Properly guided intelligence may be a good thing. I am glad our 
Apostle endorses it, for turning to the Book again, I find that in over two 
hundred places "Wisdom" is specially commended. Hear. "Get wis- 
dom, get understanding ; forget it not ; love her and she shall keep thee. 
Wisdom is the principal thing ; therefore get wisdom ; exalt her and she 



12 WHAT MUST "WE DO TO BE SAVED ? 



shall promote thee ; she shall bring thee to honor when thou dost em- 
brace her ; she shall give to thy head an ornament of grace. " Good.'' 
Sancified intelligence is not dangerous. 

But our apostle is going to study everything by his reason. Will he 
tell us by what secret process the grass grows and the flowers put forth 
their petals ? He can not. Will he explain the formation of the beauti- 
ful tracery that Jack Frost spreads over our windows of a cold winter 
morning ? ' ' God has hidden its invisible workmanship from the inquisi- 
tive eye of the philosopher. " Again, will he develope the changes by 
which the piece of steak he shares with his hound becomes human bone 
and muscle and intellectual brain in the one case, and dog meat and a 
wagging tail in the other ? I pause for a reply. * * The fact 
is, as to the ocean, so God has said to human reason, ' ' Thus far, no 
farther canst thou come ; let thy proud waves be staid." Col. Ingersoll, 
like the rest of us, must accept somethings as intuitive facts, and others 
on faith, or else must rest in blissful ignorance, and he is too shrewd to 
accept the latter, though he may not acknowledge the former 

Passing to the consideration of the fourth article, I find it essentially 
as follows : 

" I do not wish any one to treat me any better than I have treated 
him. Thereby I shall be saved." 

Let me quote from him who spake as never man spoke , " Whatso- 
ever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." 

I ask you simply, is the Ingersollism cited above amy improvement 
on the language of the Master ? Every honest man, whatever his belief, 
will answer, "Nay." "Why not then give "honor to whom honor is 
due ?" Why cull from the great fountain of thought its choicest gems 
and set them in pinch-beck that the unwary may be misled by their cheap 
glitter ? Such a course is certainly beneath the dignity of a great re- 
former. 

" Thereby I shall be saved." This is the only article of the creed that 
proffers us salvation. There is no mistaking the plan, notwithstanding 
its back -handed statement. On the self-righteous hobby of good works 
our Apostle has planted himself. 

Let me now present you with the fifth article in this wonderful creed. 
" Study the religion oi: the body and not of the soul. A healthy body 
will give a sound mind, and that will do away with superstition." 

Rich, very rich. "Study the religion of the body." "Good." "I like 



THE NEW APOSTOLIC CKEED. 13 

that," and because I have practiced it I am not in the grave. It were 
well for us all if we paid much more attention to this matter than we do ; 
and now that I think of it it is among the "Mistakes of Moses," that he 
instituted some wholesome laws bearing upon this very subject, and as I 
trace the record along I find that drunkeness, gluttony, and licentiousness 
are specially condemned, and that industry, providing for one's family, 
and cleanliness — "cleanliness next to godliness" — areas emphatically com- 
mended. Hence I am fully prepared to subscribe to the gospel of "good 
living," "good clothes " and " soap and water." Othat our Apostle would 
lead us into new fields, but not through the process of developing the body 
by dwarfing the soul. No amount of bodily religion will ever beget for us 
all rubiand faces and " bay windows," that will defy the ravages of time, 
but proper soul culture will develope within us bouyant, trusting, happy 
spirits, that amid the infirmities of age constantly affirm, ' ' In the evening 
time there shall be light," 

But "a sound body will beget a healthy mind," and that will do away 
with superstition." "Good," but is it true? You shall be your' own 
judges. Go with me to th^ extreme of South America and we shall find a 
race of people, strong of body and lithe of limb, personifications of health 
if we may credit the words of those who have been among them. Yet 
they have no schools, none of the "arts of peace," but plenty of liberty 
to roam the Patagonian plains as their fathers have for generations before 
them. Tell us, will you ? by any rules of Arithmetic, how long before 
those sound bodies will beget healthy minds and rid that people of super- 
stition. 

Take another example. The Araucanians occupy a fine territory in 
the west of the same continent. Muscular and well developed, physically 
they are unexcelled by -any other class of people, and yet they revel in the 
heathenish practices of their ancestors of centuries ago. Who will de- 
monstrate the time when the ' ' religion of the body" will make them the 
peers of our Apostle. It will not be until they are made acquainted with 
the " liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free." 

Passing over many others let us come home. We have many healthy 
men and women among us, persons whose bodily religion is unexception- 
able, and yet, notwithstanding the combined influence of this, of good 
schools, soul religion, and any amount of "free thinking," we are not rid 
of superstition. All over this land people persist in killing their pork, 
planting their vegetables, and weaning their babies in the nMngi. "Were I 

■ v . ' r .- : ' ■ -.< 



14 WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED ? 

priviledged to go thro' this audience, I should find horse shoe tokens of 
good luck, not a few, and in many a home I find the same significant 
emblem nailed over the door simply to keep the witches off. For my own 
part, notwithstanding my fine bodily religious state, for more than thirty 
years I have pared my nails only on Friday, but what the Colonel's super- 
stitious weakness is, I cannot say. 

Sixthly and lastly : — " There is no religion but liberty, justice, and 
intelligence. On these rocks I stand." 

I do not propose to discuss these points further. They are stated, as 
I take it, simply to emphasize the creed. That he stands on these he un- 
equivocally affirms That Col. Ingersoll is a man of nerve, I cheerfully 
admit. Others have been equally so. I cite a case. More than a hundred 
years ago a brawny form, with uplifted sword, stood over the affrighted 
commandant of Fort Ticonderoga, and "In the name of the great Jehovah 
and the Continental Congress" demanded its surrender. No one denies 
that Ethem Allen was a stalwart, unflinching in every hour of danger. As 
expounded at the time, his religion was that of "Liberty, justice and 
intelligence." His wife was a devoted member of the Presbyterian 
church. At her death she left an only child, a daughter. Henceforth 
she became the companion and idol of the father, who with all the fervency 
of his nature tried to instill into her mind the tenets of his religion. When 
some twenty three or four years of age, the daughter fell into a decline. 
Day by day she faded away, yet no word of death ever passed between the 
father and child, until one day she called him to her bed-side and said, 

" Father, I'm very sick." 

"Yes, my child," was all the reply. 

" Father, I'm going to die soon." 

"So I fear, my child," said the grand old man, as his lips quivered 
and the tears came all unbidden to his eyes. 

" Father, you have taken great pains to instruct me in your religion.'' 

"Yes, my daughter." 

"Tell me, then, shall I die in you* religion or that of my mother ?" 

" O die in that of your mother, die in that of your mother !" was the 
sobbing response. As I live, under the same circumstances I believe Col. 
Ingersoll would make the same reply. 



AMID THE JUNGLES. 



AMID THE JUNGLES. 

Scattered here and there amid the articles of his creed we find corrus- 
catious of thought that glow, and sparkle an scintillate like gems of genius 
set in caskets of truth and purity. A few of these are worthy a passing 
notice. Take this one so soothing to maternal sensibilities : " Mothers, 
as you lean over the cradle and sing the sweet lullabies of childhood, think 
not you are preparing kindling wood for hell." Will a man glory in his 
shame ? then let him glory in such utterances as that. How different from 
the words of the Master, ' ' Suffer little children to come unto me, and for- 
bid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

"Who of you, mothers, that have little ones sleeping beneath this 
coverlet of snow, or who, when the spring time comes, may plant violets 
on "sodded mounds ;" but rejoice in the thought that 

"There's a light in the window for you." 

Yet this the daring Infidel as remorselessly extinguishes as he relent- 
lessly deprecates the idea of retributive justice. I leave you to decide 
whose language brings comfort and consolation to lacerated hearts. 

Allowing that most Christians are good, honest people, and that there 
are thousands of honest, good clergymen, which we cheerfully accept, 
the Col. goes on to assume, that the churches are institutions of fraud and 
deceit where the treasures of heaven are sold for ready money, that when 
a man is baptised he can get rascality at first cost, but before that he has 
to pay the retail price. 

I admit there are wrongs, grievous wrongs, in the church ; she needs 
purging of her humanity, and to pay attention to soul culture. But how- 
ever this may be, it comes with poor grace for a man who owes all he is 
and all he has to institutions fostered and built up by those same churches 
thus to maligne them. Can a son forget or abuse the mother who bore 
him ? Some do, but they are not Christian sons. I have heard not a few 
of them shout " I belong to Ingersoll's churcht" 

I may not speak of his ridicule of the individual churches, suffice it 
to say that his treatment of the church in general reminds me of a family 
of poor children which I once knew. For weeks they had had nothing to 
eat but " mush and milk ;" this was the diet morning, noon and night. 
Even this plain faro was procured through great effort on the part of the 
mother who was obliged to prepare the meal from the hardening corn on 
a grater each day. Finally when they could stand it no longer a children's 



16 WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED ? 

council was called and the good woman, all unintentionally, heard the 
conclusion of the matter summed up in these words, ' ' Mother is the dev- 
il." Tho' she has spent her time and resources in founding schools, el- 
evating society, relieving human suffering and supporting governments, 
and this against every species of opposition and ridicule, to Col. Ingersoll 
the church is the devil. 

There she stands, made up of the glorious sisterhood, Presbyterian, 
Baptist, Methodist and all the others, each trying more or less earnestly, 
to rid herself of those evils which can only be time cured, dwarfing intel- 
lect, stupefying brotherly love, leading nations back to barbarism, direct- 
ly against the elevating tendencies of infidelity,^ and hypocritically pros- 
tituting the holiest aspirations of humanity. Lot like, he stands, calling 
upon the host of his best friends to come away from her unhallowed 
shrines. Verily to him the church is the devil, but he will be gray headed 
(?) before he casts this satan out. 

Once more. For the theological Christ he has no respect, but Jesus 
the Nazarene was a good and serene man and he pays him the homage of 
his administration and his tears. He was a reformer in his day and an 
infidel in his time. Had he lived in that time the Col. would have been his 
friend and should he come again he could not find a better one than he 
would be. 

There are some rich tkings about this. Indeed, some " pure gold." 
Though he denies the authority of the gospels, the apostles, whose names 
they bear, being dust hundreds of years before they were written, . yet 
he clasps hands with the " good and serene " Nazarene, not because of 
his divine character but because he was a reformer and an infidel. He 
pays him the homage of his admiration and his tears. " Good." In my 
imagination I think I see him some night after he has settled with a lec- 
ture committee, retiring to his room and bedewing the carpet with tears, 
" copious, gushing tears, " because he can use the name of Jesus in derid- 
ing the religion of his mother and in belaboring the church of his father*. 
'' Tis pity of the man." 

But the climax of the ridiculous is not yet. " If he were to come 
again I would be his friend." Better. He has come. I see 
him yonder crossing the hills of new England, but before a single Puritan 
has had a chance to grasp him by the hand or the church to arrange for 
his reception the Liberal League has appointed a committee with Col. In- 



AMID THE JUNGLES. 17 

gersoll at its head, to receive him. Grasping him by the hand, cordially 
the Colonel addresses him thus : 

1 ' Glad to greet you, Mr. Jesus, we accept you as a " good and serene 
man." We know you were a reformer in your day and an infidel in j^our 
time. I have lectured all over this great land in your behalf, and I tell 
you I have given that old fellow Moses some hard raps, and now that you 
have come again I'm going to'be your friend. 

" These, my dear sir, are my associates of the Liberal League, and like 
myself, are bound to see fair play and put down this canting prate about 
your theological nature. Now give us your hand." 

How do you suppose the ' ' man of sorrows " will reply ? Drawing 
himself up in his full serenity, methinks he simply says somewhat as he 
did to one of old, " Bob, ye must be born again." 

A friend to Christ, and bound to stand by him if he should come 
again, the Col. would like to see a miracle . Herod would have been 
glad to witness" the same the same thing, for this purpose be had been 
anxious for a long time to see Jesus. Gratification for neither, and still 
' ' The great miracle of lif e'goes on around us. " 

But humanity rebels. Men, the most depraved and abandoned to-day, 
are found to-morrow at^ the feet of Jesus " Clothed and in their right 
minds." If the restoration of a lost arm would satisfy the Colonel, how 
much more should the regeneration of a whole man ? 

With the scriptures the Colonel is sadly disgusted. Their authors 
are unreliable ; much of their literature is obscene and ought to be sup- 
pressed ; many of their characters are the most licentious of men and 
should be consigned to oblivion, and their Deity, as the most vindictive 
of beings must be discarded. What his reason dictates he transfers to his 
own use, the balance he ignores, with ebulitions of sarcastic wit. 

His relation to this whole suhject may be fitly illustrated by thi-^ an- 
ecdote : 

In a Buckeye home in the days when families " muliplied andreplen 
ished the earth " and the trundle bed was an indispensible for anywhere 
from three to six of the juniors of the family, a good mother was obliged 
to stow away in one of these, five little hopefuls. This was no easy task, 
and taxed her military skill to the utmost, as Soloman, a nervous child, 
was continually " breaking line." Finally she taught them to lie " spoon 
fashion " as the easiest way to peace. One evening when she had thus 
snugly tucked them in and returned to her work she was suddenly aroused 



18 WHAT MUST WE DO TO BE SAVED ? 

by the cry, ' 'Mother, mother, Tholoman won't lie thspoon, " coming up from 
four baby voices whose equanimity had been disturbed by the straighten- 
ing movements of little Sol. So it is with the Colonel. Virtually he is 
crying out that Moses, David and all the rest won't " spoon " up to his 
easy notions. 

THE PARALLEL. 
Briefly, T must close by a parallel between Paul, the apostle to the 
Gentiles, and Robert, the modern apostle of Infidelity. 

Paul, reared at the feet of Gamaliel, destined for high position, glad- 
ly guarding the clothes of the young men who stoned Stephen, and re- 
joicing in " Haling men and women and committing them to prison'' 
that he might bring contempt on the cause of Christ, was he who learned 
to reason " Of righteousness, temperance and judgement to come " until 
royalty itself " trembled." 

Robert, reared in the lap of the church, made what he is through her 
institutions and influences, laying down his garments at the feet of young 
men that he may have the more freedom, is he who uses all his rare en- 
dowments in proclaiming the " Gospel" of liberty, justice and intelli- 
gence, cut loose from all moorings but humanity, until freed from all sense 
of allegiance to any higher power, the very slums of society shout peans of 
rapturous delight. 

Speaking to his Ephesian brethren the "Aged " said. " Ye yourselves 
know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities." Grand old 
tent maker, he sought to make the gospel as little chargeable as possible. 
" In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils in 
the wilderness, in perils among falso brethren ; in weariness and painful- 
ness," he gave himself unreservedly to the care of all the churches. 

Thus the ' Modern ' may fittingly say, " I have passed from one end 
of this great land to the other, sleeping in Pulman coaches, resting in 
palatial hotels, toasted and feted, and flattered by the multitude, and re- 
ceiving large sums of money for discrediting Moses and the prophets, and 
satyrizing the very churches which Paul gave the labors of a lifetime — nay 
life itself — to establish." 

Once more. Waiting the coming of the executioner, Paul wrote, ' ' I 
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faiih 
hence forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." 

Standing over the pulseless form of a beloved brother, thus Col. In- 



THE PARALLEL. 19 



gersoll reveals his faith : " Life is a narrow vale between the cold and 
barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the 
heights. We cry aloud and the only answer is the echo of our wailing 
cry." If this is cold and cheerless, frigid the following : — " When I die I 
am going to heaven and if I don't find those there I love, I shall emigrate 
at once to hell." How different the lives ; how doubly different the senti- 
ments of these two apostles. 

In the future the life and doctrines of Paul shall shine more and 
more resplendent when the name of Ingersoll is forgotten. Jand his theories 
are trodden under the foot of all thoughtful men. Realizing more and 
more that " Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of 
things not seen" they will sing 

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow," 

with continually increasing fervency, knowing, with the poet that 

" Truth, crushed to earth will rise again, 

The immortal years of God are hers, 
Whilst Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 
And dies amid her worshipers. 
" With malice toward none and charity for all," then, let us hope we 
may apply to the eloquent, rollicking Colonel, and his misguided follow- 
ers, with a little change, the words of our own pure-minded Whittier, 
Ah well ! for them all some fond hope lies 

Deeply buried from human eyes ; 
And in the hearafter, angels may 

Rub from their eyes the scales away. 



AND OTHER POEMS, 

By H. U. JOHNSON. 



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Muslin, Beveled Edges, nicely gilded, - - $1.00. 

This volume of chaste, flowing verse, contains under 
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Of the other Poems, some are patriotic, others religious, 
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Sent on receipt of price. Address, 

fi. U. jIOHNSON, j^ORTH EAST, fA. 



RANDOLPH, N. Y. 

Established 30 Years. Located on the N. Y., P. & 0. R. R, 

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BED, \\ THE GREAT CO-PARTNERSHIP, 

AND OTHER PAPERS. 



A (Book of Facts and Fancies, abounding in (Rem= 
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IKEuslisi, plain - 75 cents. 



Obed appears to be a philosopher, taking a quaint and humorous, yet 
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It is written in a captivating style, and a quaint humor threads the 
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Tliese papers are characterized as containing a blending of humor, 
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The Book is full of wit and humor as well as a heap of sound sense. 
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The character of the Papers is humor, pathos, facts and sensible 
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Our friend and contributor, " Obed,"has sent proof sheets of " The 
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A few pages farther on Obed read, " I met my old chum John this 
morning. The fellow is in kot water. He's been married five weeks. 
Three days ago his wife said to him, 

" My dear, you will take me home to day ?" John replied that his 
employer's arrangements made it impossible for him to leave." 

" John, you must take me," was the re joiner. 

" But I tell you that Mr. B. cannot possibly spare me to-day," per- 
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" Well, sir, Mr B., or no Mr. B., I shall go home." 

" Well, then, go : but you will go on foot and alone. I shall attend 
to business." 

This was the first pass In five minutes the young wife was in 
spasms, while John stood over her, shocked at what had happened, and 
the, to him, inexplicable results. Three days of hysterics and forty-eight 
hours of mother-in-law, have cut more wisdom teeth for him than he sup- 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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